Bert Winzer says he had no idea what he was in for when, at 21, he volunteered to serve in an Army commando unit.

"I said, 'Well, I'll sign up; it will never happen,' " he recalled, thinking he wouldn't be selected among the large pool of volunteers.

What followed was a military stint that took him and other members of the 1st Special Service Force from the Aleutian Islands to Europe. They fought against German troops in the mountains of Italy and were among the first Allied units to enter Rome in 1944.

On Tuesday, Winzer, 92, of Lower Macungie Township, and about 40 of the surviving veterans who made up the 1,800-man force will receive the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony on Capitol Hill. The award is the highest civilian honor that Congress can bestow.

Winzer will attend with his son, Kim, of Allen Township, and a grandson, Michael. The congressional recognition "is quite an honor," he said.

That it is. Winzer will be in illustrious company when he receives the medal, given in appreciation for distinguished achievement and contributions. Its recipients include the Apollo 11 astronauts and Tuskegee Airmen, Frank Sinatra, Jonas Salk, Roberto Clemente and Mother Teresa. George Washington was the first to receive the medal, in 1776. Zachary Taylor was the only person to receive it three times. And 11-year-old Roland Boucher became the youngest recipient in 1941, for rescuing five playmates from icy Lake Champlain.

In a phone call last week, Winzer offered only a few words about the award. But he has detailed the work his unit performed in conversations with reporters and in presentations to school groups and historical societies.

His daughter, Pam Deppe of Allentown, said groups are "fascinated" when Winzer speaks about his wartime experience. His unit, a forerunner to today's special forces, became known as the Devil's Brigade, a nickname given by the Germans because the men used black shoe polish to darken their faces before nighttime raids. One of their key missions was memorialized in the 1968 film "The Devil's Brigade," starring William Holden and Cliff Robertson.

In 2012, Winzer shared with The Morning Call his memories of the days following the famed December 1943 assault his unit made on Monte la Difensa, a German-held mountaintop on the route to Rome.

The men patroled a German camp at night, wading across a canal and sneaking through minefields to find out where enemy troops were positioned. They would leave behind cards that read, "The worst is yet to come," Winzer recalled.

His bunk buddy, Jake Zier, was killed by a German sniper shortly after the Monte la Difensa mission, as the men headed through a series of smaller mountains. A few months later, an enemy shell hit Winzer's shoulder, landing him in a field hospital in France.

Winzer kept the shrapnel that doctors dug out of his wound, and he eventually received a Purple Heart.

He also has a Bronze Star, a medal that wasn't bestowed on him until 2013. Under a 1962 presidential order, World War II combat veterans are entitled to a Bronze Star, the fourth-highest medal awarded by the Army.

When a fellow veteran noticed that Winzer wasn't wearing the medal during a military appreciation ceremony, he told Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who contacted Army officials and arranged to have it awarded.

"For more than half a century, Mr. Winzer has been an unsung hero," Toomey said after Winzer received the Bronze Star.

Toomey co-sponsored the resolution that awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the 1st Special Service Force and is expected to attend Tuesday's ceremony.

"What a privilege to help Mr. Winzer obtain his long-lost medals," Toomey said. "I am overjoyed that the Congress is honoring him this week. … Our country is safer and more free because of Bert Winzer and his buddies from the 1st Special Forces."

After his World War II service, Winzer — a 1940 graduate of Emmaus High School — returned to the Lehigh Valley, married Joyce Meeker, had two children, and took jobs at an auto dealership and at the Mack Trucks plant in Allentown.

Deppe said her father has stayed active, climbing ladders to make repairs at St. James United Church of Christ in Allentown or chipping in at his condo development.

At Tuesday's ceremony, Winzer will be easy to spot. He may be the only one wearing his Army uniform, even though the invitation suggested that attendees wear business attire.

"I feel that there's nothing more businesslike than a military uniform," he said.